Impatience
by Tiffany Adams
Summary: WARNING: SLASH. Lucas gets impatient and secudes Willy. Willy reacts. Romance insues Willy/Lucas.


Title: Impatience  
  
Author: Tiffany Adams  
  
Fandom: Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars  
  
Pairing: Willy/Lucas  
  
Rating: R  
  
Summary: Lucas gets impatient and seduces Willy. Willy reacts strangely. Romance ensues.  
  
Archive: Yes  
  
Email: Tiffany_Adams70@hotmail.com  
  
Series/Sequel: Alternate from my usual universe/aniverse  
  
Web Page: www.angelfire.com/scifi/tadams/index.html  
  
Disclaimer: Willy DuWitt, Bucky O'Hare, and Jenny belong to Continuity Graphics, Inc. Lucas MacArthur and Ramsay MacLeod belong to DJ Clawson.  
  
Warnings: m/m (homosexual) relationships. Other warnings for first time, underage, implied bisexuality, and prophetic violence.  
  
______________________________________________________  
  
Willy DuWitt was having one of those days that was neither good nor bad, but he wanted it to end nonetheless. The Righteous was in orbit of Noctur II when he discovered irregularities in the ventilation system. Trying to solve the puzzle presented to him by the ship's malfunctions was intriguing at first, but after a few hours had just grown frustrating and he had to admit to the captain that he needed help. The ship's life-support system had never been an area of strength for him, and this time it had more or less beaten him. He made some calls and was still waiting for the technicians in engineering when he heard sounds outside, of the crew talking to a new voice. Thinking it was a technician, he climbed through the outer hatch and into the docking bay.  
  
But it wasn't. Lucas MacArthur, in his black priestly robes, was chatting with an irritated Bucky O'Hare. He had no idea how long the other human had been there, but it had apparently been long enough to mess up the situation.  
  
"What's goin' on?" Hoping to smooth things out, he used a neutral tone.  
  
"Mr. MacArthur was just leaving," Bucky said protectively.  
  
"No, I wasn't," he insisted. "I haven't seen your precious little genius yet. Or do I have to book an appointment?"  
  
"You're not talking to Willy." Bucky remained as parental as ever.  
  
To get a word in edgewise, Willy had to step in between them. "What it is?"  
  
"I wanted to talk to you about visiting earth. You know, since you have the only active doorway." Lucas was being his usual defensive self. "Is that such a crime?"  
  
"Everythin's a crime with ye, MacArthur," Deadeye slurred.  
  
Lucas smirked. "Yeah, that's rich, coming from a pirate."  
  
The duck nearly grabbed Lucas with his four arms, and Willy was glad he was standing in the way to stop him. "Hey. Stoppit. I'll talk to him ... alone. I don't need a brawl today."  
  
Bucky shot him a look. "Be careful, Engineer DuWitt."  
  
Willy shrugged. "We're just gonna talk." He nearly dragged Lucas out by his ear, leading him into a currently unused bay. "Now... about earth -"  
  
"I was wondering what I was gonna have to do to get you alone," Lucas said sheepishly.  
  
"Well, if you didn't incite everyone on the crew, then maybe you'd just - Wait a minute. Alone?" He suddenly felt on guard. "What, do you have private business on earth?"  
  
"No. Not on earth." He was being vague, alarming Willy. "It has nothing to do with earth."  
  
"Okay." He wanted to speed this up. "Then what is this about?" He was not ready for the response.  
  
Lucas kissed him. Not a friendly peck, either. He grabbed him by his collar and shoved him against the bay wall, as if Willy would try to escape and he wasn't willing to let him until he was through. By the time they separated, they were both gasping for air.  
  
Willy straightened his glasses. "What the *hell* was that?"  
  
"You're a genius and you don't know what a kiss is? Idiot." He grinned evilly and kissed him again, before Willy could further recover. This time, though, the engineer was able to wiggle out of Lucas' concentrated grasp.  
  
"No," it took him a moment to catch his breath again. "What are you *doing*? Do you do this to every human you know?"  
  
"Only you. Though I admit my options are a little limited."  
  
"You're a *guy,* Lucas. I'm a guy."  
  
"So observant for someone with the eyesight of a mole."  
  
"Don't insult Digger."  
  
"I wasn't insulting Digger." He leaned in for another kiss, but this time Willy was able to shove him away.  
  
"Stop it. What brought this on, anyway?"  
  
"Well, I was waiting around for you to be legal, but I get a little impatient."  
  
"So you just decided to seduce me?"  
  
"Is it working?"  
  
This was surreal. "Of course it's not working!"  
  
"Have to try again," was his reply. This time he held Willy's hands against the wall so he couldn't push away. Willy had to admit that the priest was persistent. He was also a great kisser. Too many things were flying through the engineer's mind for him to process until his comm-link began beeping impatiently. It was only after three rings that Lucas eased his death grip on him.  
  
"Don't say anything." Willy have him a cold stare as he turned on his radio. "Yeah?"  
  
"Willy, you're needed on the Righteous. The techs are here to look at the ventilation," came Bucky's cool voice, a welcome reprieve.  
  
Willy didn't let his eyes off of Lucas. "I'll be right there." He switched off his comm-link.  
  
"You're not getting off that easy," was the priest's sultry reply.  
  
"Yes I am, you pervert."  
  
"Don't even start. You just kissed back."  
  
Willy ran out of the room before he had to reply.  
  
**********************************************  
  
Lucas. Lucas MacArthur. Had kissed him. And he had kissed back.  
  
Jesus *Christ.*  
  
He turned the water considerably colder.  
  
Lucas fucking MacArthur. The terrorist. The freedom fighter. The priest. The man who had threatened to blow his brains out just two years ago. The man who gave humans a bad name in the aniverse. How many people had asked Willy if he was related to him? How much ribbing did he get for that?  
  
Maybe he was just playing with him. Lucas was a pretty sinister guy, or so Willy thought. Maybe it was just an act. Or many the terrorist thing was an act, and the kiss was real. It didn't seem possible that both sides of Lucas could exist in the same body. But it seemed real enough.  
  
And he had kissed back.  
  
Not the first time, obviously. Too much shock, no desire. Or the second, when he was still numbed by the whole experience. But the third - by then he was just rolling with his instincts, and that was apparently his instinctual response. Why? Because it had been motherfucking amazing. He had never imagined a kiss would feel like that.  
  
He hadn't done a lot of imagining, to be honest. Job and all that. He went to school, ran home, and went to work. Usually arrived home again too exhausted to put on his pajamas, much less contemplate the opposite sex.  
  
Much less the same sex.  
  
Dreams were a different story, but he didn't remember too many of them. If you didn't think about a dream immediately when you woke up, it was as good as forgotten, and he didn't have time to let that sort of thing interfere with his mandatory morning meditation. Not that a few times he wasn't so good at clearing his mind. But hey, he wasn't twelve anymore.  
  
Christ, if he had a dream about *Lucas* tonight, he would shoot himself.  
  
Lucas kissing him. It was a moment burned fresh into his brain in a scarring way. But that alone was bad enough. Another layer to the already obviously complicated priest. Another reason to hate him. But he'd never been able to bring himself to hate him. Even for all of his smart-alacky hijinks and terroristic hostage taking, Willy never seemed to have it in him to stay angry at Lucas, at least the way the rest of the crew did. Maybe it was a human thing, that he felt territorial about the only other human resident of the aniverse.  
  
What made the whole thing much, much worse was that he had kissed back. Not intentionally, but it just seemed like the right way to return such an amazing favor. In one brief, weird moment he had forgotten the gender, age, and sanity barriers lying between them and responded to Lucas on a purely instinctual level.  
  
Instinctual. That meant that...Jesus H. Christ. He turned the water a *lot* colder, to the point of turning his skin blue. Finding out you weren't quite as straight as you thought you were was bad enough. Having it happen thanks to a lecherous' priest's sudden advances was that much worse. He was a priest - wasn't he supposed to be celibate or something? Something told Willy that Lucas didn't consider that a major obstacle to his desires.  
  
Was Lucas going to continue this? Willy could have him arrested, or at least reported. Maybe a restraining order.  
  
But he didn't want to do that. Even after his latest stunt, Willy still felt that natural loyalty to the other human. Maybe it wasn't just species loyalty. It was getting more complicated than that. Lucas was an arrogant, lecherous bastard.  
  
So why did he still want to kiss him so badly?  
  
The scientist in him couldn't reconcile the two. But the scientist wasn't behind the wheel right now, or the shower would be a lot warmer than it was. Writing Lucas off just didn't seem fair to either of them. He needed to talk him.  
  
********************************************  
  
Lucas was not hard to find. The Righteous was still docked on Noctur II, as it would be for as long as it took for the technicians to find the problem with the ventilation system and fix it. Noctur's capitol city was also home to its largest and most ornate monastery, built to house a monk hood and one very sacred prophet.  
  
First he needed an excuse to wander Noctur. He wasn't on duty, so technically he was free, but he also had good reason to be in the aniverse and he didn't want to attract any kind of attention. Exploring Noctur was always a good bet; the crew usually expected him to jump at the chance at exploring a new planet with the same boyish excitement he always used. His captain let him go without raising an eyebrow.  
  
Second, he needed to see Lucas - privately. He knew where he probably was - in the temple, which only had public entrances, and he already expected to go through a few levels of monks before getting access to their precious prophet. Did Lucas have a personal computer? Did he have email? Was it private email or did the monks see it too?  
  
Why was he being so paranoid?  
  
He hit the first public terminal he found and looked into the monastery. Lucas had a private line with a secretary. It was his best shot.  
  
"Mr. DuWitt, Lucas-rah isn't in the monastery. He's in his private residence outside the city. I can give you his location."  
  
And that was before he had a chance to explain himself. "Uhm... okay. Thanks." He had a feeling the secretary didn't give this information out to just anyone.  
  
The private residence of Lucas MacArthur was not far out of town, tucked away in a still-swampy woodlands of Noctur II. Willy still wasn't quite sure why he was going, and almost turned back from the transport station two times. The place was nice but inconspicuous, which was probably the intention.  
  
Lucas answered the door, wearing black pants and a well-worn black "Blink 182" shirt that he probably purchased on his only trip to earth. He didn't look overwhelmingly surprised to see him. "Hey. Come in." He looked like he was waking up from a nap.  
  
The inside was a mess. It was probably originally supposed to be a luxuriously decorated apartment, but things were in shambles. There was writing everywhere, in a dozen different languages that Willy didn't recognize. Writing carved into the kitchen table, the cabinets, scribbled on the ceilings, even painted on the mirrors. He had even written over his forearms.  
  
"I love what you've done with the place," Willy smirked nervously.  
  
"Yeah, well, marks of a prophet." Lucas led him into the living room. "I don't really have any control over it."  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"It's not something to be sorry about." He switched gears as he became more alert. "You wanted to talk to me?"  
  
"Did you know I was coming?"  
  
"Well, you didn't seem like a one night stander."  
  
"Lucas, you kissed me!"  
  
He absently scratched his face. "So did you."  
  
"Why?!"  
  
"Well, I was going to flirt with you first, but I had a feeling you aren't the type to catch on to that sort of thing."  
  
He wasn't willing to admit to himself how right Lucas probably was. "How long as this been going on?"  
  
"What? That I've been interested in you?"  
  
"Yes!"  
  
Lucas unconsciously counted on his fingers. "Two years. If it's been that long since we first met."  
  
"I was fourteen! Ever heard of pedophilia, Lucas?"  
  
"Pedophilia ends with thirteen."  
  
"And you're like, what, twenty-five?"  
  
"Twenty-six." He didn't seem at all uncomfortable with the subject matter, and his arrogant breeziness was making things even worse. "And you're cute. What's the problem?"  
  
"I didn't even know you were gay."  
  
"I'm bi."  
  
Willy was getting the feeling that there was a lot he didn't know about Lucas. "I thought you were a priest."  
  
"Lopinenean priests are not celibate. Only monks take the vow of chastity. I'm only an honorary priest anyway, because of my vilthuril birthright." Despite all of this, Willy noticed that he was still wearing his red prayer beads wrapped around his lower arm. "There's a lot you don't know about me."  
  
"I guess so."  
  
Their conversation came to a natural halt, which made Willy excessively uncomfortable. He wanted to confront him, but now that Lucas was actually standing patiently in front of him, the only thoughts that came to his teenage brain were not so pure.  
  
But Lucas wasn't really as patient as he looked. He waited a full thirty seconds, but that was all before dragging Willy into another infamous lip-lock. By the time they separated, Willy's train of thought had been officially derailed, so that he had to work at being upset.  
  
The older human could apparently read the look on face. "I thought this is what you came for."  
  
"No-!" he answered a little too quickly.  
  
"What, you came to talk?" Lucas grinned maliciously. "We talked. We finished. Now we make out."  
  
"We *can't* make out!"  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"For starters, I'm straight."  
  
"Straight guys don't kiss back."  
  
Willy felt his ears going red. "You're a terrorist, Lucas."  
  
"I'm not a terrorist. I'm a freedom fighter. Not any different from what O'Hare does, really."  
  
"Don't compare yourself with the captain."  
  
"I think it's appropriate. We're both fighting against the toads. We're about the same age -"  
  
"You're a bull-headed moron-"  
  
"So is O'Hare. We both run headfirst into risky situations." He narrowed his eyes. "And we both get what we want."  
  
"So what did I do to become the object of your affection? Or is this just an 'only human in the aniverse' thing" Willy said it with obvious sarcasm.  
  
Lucas luxuriously sat down on his sofa. "First of all, if I just wanted to get laid, I could go back to earth again. Why do you think I did it last time?" He continued before Willy could throw together a response. "Second, you clearly have no idea how attractive you are. Or are you too busy fixing the Righteous to look in the mirror?"  
  
Willy instinctively played with his glasses. "I'm a geek. I'm a skinny geek."  
  
"You have no self esteem." He stood back up, looking Willy over, which only served to make the younger man more uncomfortable. "You're adorable. Hasn't anyone ever said that to you?"  
  
"You mean other than my parents?" He had to think about it. "Well... Laura. But ...it was a long time ago. And I wasn't interested."  
  
"But you're interested in me."  
  
Willy started at his shoes. "No. No, I'm not."  
  
"Don't patronize me, Willy." It was the harshest tone he had used yet, the only remnants of his old terrorist voice that he had switched off since Bucky left the launch bay. "You wouldn't be here if you weren't interested. Or at least, you'd be yelling at me. But you're not."  
  
The engineer couldn't believe his face could get any hotter, but it was doing the deed. He stuttered but had no other answer. Lucas approached him and touched his red cheeks. "You're cute when you're blushing." This time, the kiss was slower, more natural, mainly because there was less squirming at Willy's end.  
  
"We gotta stop -" was the eventual, breathless answer on Willy's end.  
  
"Give me one good reason." Lucas took his hand. "You're shaking. You've never been kissed before?"  
  
"Not like that."  
  
"You'll have to get used to it, then."  
  
Willy had a lot of things he wanted to say - *needed* to say, but they were quickly shelved by his raging hormones, which prevented him from doing much of anything that didn't involve Lucas' lips. He had no idea how long this blissful, mind-melting period would have lasted had his comm-link not started to beep.  
  
"Ignore it," Lucas mumbled during a breathing break.  
  
"No, I can't." Willy gently pushed Lucas off him, sitting up from the couch they had collapsed on. "If I don't answer, Jenny will contact her. And I don't want her in my head right now."  
  
"Fuckin' witchcraft." Lucas repositioned himself, looking supremely content.  
  
"Don't insult the Aldeberans," was his word of tough warning as he glanced at his comm-link. "The captain left me a message. I have to go."  
  
"Don't...," he pleaded, fingering Willy's palm.  
  
"No, I have to." Willy stood up, straightening his clothing. "We should ... pick up where we left off. Another time."  
  
Lucas seemed genuinely thrilled that Willy was openly willing to continue their activities. "Even though I'm a terrorist?"  
  
"Don't make my head spin, Lucas." He picked up his comm-link. "I'll be on Noctur II for another two days, and then in the Noctur system for a few weeks. How can I reach you?"  
  
"My private line at the temple is considered private for a reason. No one will find out if you call."  
  
"I have to come up with some reason to keep leaving the Righteous." The prospect of skipping out to see someone was threateningly enticing. It would complicate his life, but it was exciting to his hormone-driven brain.  
  
"You're a genius. You'll think of something," Lucas smiled and kissed his hand.  
  
Logical finally began to influence Willy. "Can we lay some ground rules?"  
  
"You don't want your crewmates to know." He didn't say it as if he was offended.  
  
"I don't want anyone to know ... until I figure this out." He scratched his tousled hair. "No offense. I've just never ... done anything like this before. With a guy. With anyone."  
  
"I understand. But I want to see you again." His evil grin returned. "Don't think you can hide from me, Engineer DuWitt."  
  
********************************************  
  
"Lucas, you're making me crazy," Willy broke off, physically forcing himself to pull away from their embrace.  
  
"Now you know how I feel 24/7," was his cheeky reply.  
  
Again, Willy had to hold back the priest's exploratory hands. "No, I mean it. Stop it."  
  
There was apparently enough force in his words to actually make Lucas hold back his interest, if only for a brief moment. "What? I thought this is what you wanted?"  
  
"I don't know what I want," he admitted shyly. "I need to chill out for a little while, okay? Please." It was harder to say than he wanted it to be, but something inside him had turned on enough to tell him on an instinctual level that maybe he wasn't necessarily ready for where this was going.  
  
"You're such a prude," Lucas' reply was unsurprising at first, but then his face fell as he finished, "Okay. I understand."  
  
"Y-You do?"  
  
"Yeah." Lucas chastely kissed him on the cheek. "Go chill. I've waited two years. I can wait a little longer."  
  
*******************************************  
  
Two hours later, Wily was not considerably more "chilled out" than he had been earlier. Being far away from Lucas calmed him a bit, but didn't solve his problems. He knew forced separation wasn't the solution. He would run into Lucas again, especially while the Righteous was still patrolling sector three. And he couldn't even think of the white-haired priest without thinking impure thoughts.  
  
What he needed, he lamented as he took off his disheveled uniform shirt and tossed it on his bed, was to talk to someone. Not the Righteous crew, certainly. Not anyone who knew Lucas. And that was pretty much all of his aniversian contacts. Why did he have to be interested in a guy so in the news?  
  
School friends also weren't an option, because he didn't have any real "friends." Jesus Christ, he needed to spend less time at work. The only person he really knew he could talk to, maybe, was Laura, and even she he didn't trust to not spread it halfway across the hallways in an hour that he as (a) gay, and (b) seeing a 26-year-old priest. He'd nether live *that* down, and being "weird Willy" was hard enough.  
  
No, he couldn't use anyone at school. And there wasn't really anyone else in his life, other than his paren -  
  
Willy smacked himself. Why hadn't he thought of mom and dad? Then again, was he really about to be the most uncool teenager *ever* for asking his *parents* about sex?  
  
Did he really have any other choice?  
  
His parents were cool people. They would take it well. If they didn't, he could rail on them for being "squares" and they would have to reverse their opinions or be ostracized from their hippie social class. It was not a bad deal. And it was his only visible option.  
  
Mom was best. Fortunately, she was home for lunch, but since she was currently fasting to better understand the plight of the Cambodian children, lunch hour involved meditating in her room. In other words, she was very available.  
  
It took him a minute work up the courage to knock on her door. "Mom?"  
  
"Come in, honey," she said in her usual ultra-sweet, supportive voice that usually made him nauseous but was really just what he needed right now.  
  
He opened the door and leaned on the doorknob nervously. "Hey. Can we uh,... talk?"  
  
Susan DuWitt was on her mat on the floor, looking particularly centered. "Of course. What is it?"  
  
Signs were good. It was enough for Willy to sit down on bed, albeit looking down at his shoes, not at her. "Uhm, I want to ask you about something."  
  
She seemed to sense the awkwardness of the situation. "Okay."  
  
"It's about ...uhm, this guy. A friend of mine."  
  
"At work?"  
  
"Yes." He still couldn't make eye contact. "So... this friend I have ... he's really more than a friend. If you know what I mean."  
  
"You're seeing him?"  
  
"Yeah." She was making this easier than he imagined. Tofu and wheat grass aside, it was occasionally very cool to have amazingly liberal parents. "Anyway... he's uh, older than me."  
  
"How much older?" Now concern was seeping into her voice.  
  
It was time for a little fib. "Six years." Plus or minus four...  
  
"That's pretty old, Willy." It was the first disapproving tone he had heard from her in months. "He's twenty-two."  
  
"I can do the math." Christ, and he wasn't over the hill yet! "And he's ... you know, *older.*" He prayed to every deity he knew of that she would pick up on it and not require him to say 'experienced.'  
  
A moment of uneasy silence passed between them as his mother hesitated with her words. "And he's pressuring you?"  
  
She was clever, he had to give her that. "No... not exactly. Well, yes and no. I don't know." He nervously took off his glasses and began cleaning them, mainly so he wouldn't be able to see her expressions, even by accident.  
  
"That sounds like a yes."  
  
"Well, it's not like there isn't anything going on at my end." It seemed like the most obscure way to see it. "But ... I don't know, Mom."  
  
Another moment of choosing the right words on the parent end. "Does he love you?"  
  
"Huh?" He hadn't even thought of it. "I dunno. Maybe. Probably."  
  
"Has he said the words 'I love you'?"  
  
"No. He hasn't."  
  
"Have you?"  
  
Him? In love with Lucas? Like, take a ride on the tunnel of love, go on a romantic vacation love? Hell no. "No. I'm not - I'm not *in love* with him, like go marry him in Hawaii love if that's what you're asking. I'm just, you know, happy with him."  
  
"So let's assess the situation," she said in a voice of strained neutrality. "You're seeing a guy who's much older than you and probably isn't in love with you. Your relationship is obviously mostly based on physicality. But whatever you're currently doing with him, it sounds like deep down you don't really want to take the next step."  
  
"...Yeah." He thought about it. "No, I *do* want to ... you know, take the next step. But that's the problem."  
  
"Willy, sweetheart," she forced eye contact with him, or at least he guessed she did through the fog of his poor eyesight. "If you really wanted to, we wouldn't be having this conversation, now would we?"  
  
Now it was his turn to take a break before answering. "...I guess so."  
  
"Then I think you have your answer." But less firmly she continued, sitting down on the bed next to him and stroking his long hair. "But I'm proud of you. For coming to me. I know it's very awkward for someone your age to ask your mother something like this. Your grandparents would have had heart attacks if I asked them."  
  
"So, it's really okay? I mean, that I'm dating a guy?" He put his glasses back on.  
  
"Of course, honey. What do you think I am, some kind of square?"  
  
*******************************************  
  
As Blinky turned his giant eye back to his dusting, Willy spun around on his work bench and checked his computer again. Still no mail from Lucas. He was tempted to call the temple again, in case he had returned. But it was unlikely, and he didn't want to seem any more paranoid than he was. The priest had said he understood Willy's reluctance to take things to take things to the next level; was he just being nice? Lucas was an impatient guy. It was possible, if a mean slant to his character.  
  
He didn't want to think about it anymore. He wanted to concentrate on something else - anything else. But his mind just wasn't on his work. He hoped his superiors didn't notice.  
  
The beeping of his mailbox was the best sound he'd heard all day. The content, however, was more disturbing.  
  
Will-  
  
Sick. Dont come.  
  
-Luke  
  
The misspelling and the brevity were both disturbing. He had seen Lucas in moments of vision-related pain and was surprised that the priest was still embarrassed about it.  
  
But he wanted to see Lucas, and not just for hormonal reasons. He missed his company, he missed his snide but amusing commentary on almost anything that happened. But more importantly, he wanted to support Lucas. He wanted to hold his hand and be there for his boyfriend in pain. He was sure if he was injured, Lucas would do the same. A visit seemed only fair.  
  
"Leaving so soon, Engineer DuWitt?" Bucky said as he entered engineering, catching Willy off-guard. "How's the project?"  
  
"Making progress. We're almost done with the internal processor." This Ramsay excuse was getting darned convenient. Now if he only had it in him to let the raccoon in on it. "Can I take off a little early? No offense, Captain, I don't think I'm really needed here."  
  
Bucky looked around. "Blinky looks like he's got it under control. Go ahead."  
  
It was all he needed to hear. Slinging the strap of his overnight bag over his shoulder, he headed out of the docking bay on Noctur I and boarded a transport for Lucas' surrogate home planet. On the shuttle he called the temple three times and got only busy signal after busy signal. Lucas was probably giving a prophecy. But on the fourth ring he got an unsettling feeling from the secretary, who admitted to not having heard from the priest since the morning, when he was still in his private residence and apparently fine.  
  
He was practically ready to wet himself when he finally arrived in Lucas' villa. There were two raccoon monks pounding on the door.  
  
"I have a key." Digging it out, he pushed them aside. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"If Lucas-rah is in a state of illness, it is our responsibility to take care of him. If he is in a state of prophecy, we must record what he says."  
  
He couldn't deal with them right now. He mentally kicked himself for calling the secretary and swiped his card in the scanner, giving him access to the house. It seemed to be in its normal state. The raccoons scurried in from behind him and began racing through the lower rooms as Willy stared at the steps leading upstairs. Apparently only he had spotted the blood stains on the carpet leading up the stairs. Too captivated to warn the monks, he gripped the handrail for strength and climbed up the stairs.  
  
Lucas was indeed home. His heavy, gasping breathing was easily audible and the stains led into his bedroom. He wasn't on the king-size bed, but he was next to it on the floor, tangled in the black satin sheets. There were new scribbles on the walls, still dripping red in what Willy prayed was ink. But Lucas was his main concern. Willy knelt next to him, inspecting his body. He was unconscious, probably from blood loss. And Willy found new carvings, probably a message of some sort.  
  
They were on the priest's wrists.  
  
*********************************************  
  
"Mr. DuWitt?"  
  
It was only after repeated, patient asking was the young monk able to bring Willy out of his stupor. He beeping of Lucas' heart monitor had been strangely soothing, tell him he was indeed alive, and he had fallen into a meditative cat nap, cradled to sleep by its rhythmic beat.  
  
"Sorry to disturb you, but the doctor wants to see you now."  
  
He followed him out, where the doctor was waiting outside so Lucas could rest. "Thank you for submitting a sample, but your blood types do not match. You cannot donate blood for Lucas-rah."  
  
The news was more shattering than he expected it to be. "I ... don't know what to do."  
  
"You can't do anything but stay with him. He needs blood but he could very well make it without it. It's his body's choice."  
  
"How deep are the wounds?"  
  
"Pretty deep. He'll have some serious scarring." The doctor casually glanced at his chart. "Forensic evidence of course suggests the wounds were self-inflicted, but that shouldn't come to any real surprise."  
  
"*What*?" He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He could envision a suicidal Lucas but it wasn't something he wanted to do. But the doctor seemed familiar with the whole situation, and that was the most chilling thing. "What do you mean?"  
  
"The monks told me you were close to him," the doctor said without questioning. "I was assuming you knew about his previous episodes?"  
  
"No. I-I didn't."  
  
The doctor looked awkwardly around. "I'm sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but this is his fourth attempt in the last six years. And the most serious one." He paused. "Though the abbots feels it might not have been a suicide attempt as much as a misdirected piece of writing. As you may have noticed, when he's in his ... fits ... he seems to have little control of what - or where - he records his visions."  
  
Willy wasn't really processing any of this information. Lucas had always pressed the severity of his visions, and what they did to him. Would the gift of prophecy really so life-threatening?  
  
"I'll stay with him... until he wakes up."  
  
*********************************************  
  
The wait was longer than he could bear. Several times he nodded off in the chair, only to awake suddenly as his head bobbed too slow, emerging from the blanket of rest with a feeling of guilt that maybe Lucas awoke and found him sleeping. But Lucas did not stir, curled in a fetal position with his wounded limbs held tight against his chest.  
  
Willy paid no attention to the passage of time until his captain appeared in the hospital hallway. Fortunately, he was not in a compromising position when the hare arrived.  
  
He saluted. "Captain."  
  
Bucky looked a little overwhelmed by his surroundings. "At ease."  
  
"Is there a problem, sir?"  
  
"Only that you're over ten hours late to reporting back, and you haven't been answering your comm. So we tracked your signal. Are you all right?"  
  
Willy absentmindedly looked at his comm-link, which he probably switched off by accident. "I'm fine. Sorry to worry you. I had a medical emergency to deal with."  
  
His superior peered into the doorway, which Willy was mostly blocking. "How'd you get involved with Lucas?"  
  
It took Willy a moment to register that O'Hare didn't mean "involved" as in romantically. How naïve ... "I was onworld and he was ... injured. I heard about it and contacted them to ask about it, and they had me come down to the hospital to try to donate blood. I *am* the only other human around."  
  
Bucky eyed him with parental protectiveness. "Did you give?"  
  
"Can't. Different blood types."  
  
"So why are you still here?"  
  
Willy tried to look sheepish. "I dunno. I just wanted to see if he survived. They won't know until he starts replenishing his own blood."  
  
"He's a terrorist, Willy."  
  
He didn't want to argue with him. He was too tired for that. "I know. But he's ...human, you know?"  
  
"Don't let your species loyalty get in the way of self preservation, Engineer DuWitt. MacArthur's dangerous - even when he's not at full capacity." He turned to leave.  
  
"So, what? Can I stay...sir?"  
  
The hare reluctantly replied, "I suppose I can't really say no."  
  
**********************************************  
  
"Staying" was taking a lot out of Willy. A day later and still nothing from his ailing boyfriend. The doctors said he was holding his own but Willy had never seen Lucas in a state of such quiet when he wasn't ... well, busy doing something else with his mouth. He wanted to take his hand, but it was partially enshrouded in bandages.  
  
It seemed like he couldn't tell if he was asleep or awake much of the time, because he dreamed about Lucas, in the same sterile position he was on the bed. In fact, he thought he was still dreaming when he saw Lucas staring at him.  
  
Wait a minute -  
  
Lucas was indeed awake, and looking very confused and surprised. The fact that he had no immediate smart-alecky comment was a sign of his weakened state. At he seemed to want to do was stare at Willy in disbelief.  
  
"Hey," the engineer brushed Lucas' white hair out of his face for him. "How are you feeling?"  
  
"Arms hurt." Lucas closed his eyes. "Tired."  
  
"You can go back to sleep if you want."  
  
"How long... have I been sleepin'?"  
  
Willy glanced at his red watch. "Two days."  
  
"Have you been waiting? That long?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
Lucas smiled. "Love you."  
  
"Go back to sleep, Lucas." It was hard for him to fight the instincts to try to keep his boyfriend awake, just to hear his voice a little longer. But he saw the aching in his eyes and realized what was best for him.  
  
"'kay."  
  
"Sleep." Cursing himself as he did it, Willy brushed his hands over Lucas' eyelids. "A restful sleep. A dreamless sleep." The spell was already in effect before the priest could respond.  
  
******************************************  
  
It was another twelve hours before Lucas was conscious again. He awoke to the doctor giving him a decent prognosis of a full recovery with major scarring. He didn't have any major reaction to any of this, and didn't speak until the doctor was gone and the abbot left after blessing him.  
  
"Sounds good," Willy remarked casually. "How do you feel?"  
  
"My arms itch," Lucas said dryly. "Like crazy."  
  
"The doctor said -"  
  
"Not to touch them. I know." Lucas glanced at his bandaged arms, then looked away distantly. A natural silence passed between them before Willy was ready to speak.  
  
"Do you want to talk about it?"  
  
"About what?" Lucas had apparently regained some of his vigor. "You want to know if this was another suicide attempt? Or if I was just crazy? Which answer will make you feel better?"  
  
"I didn't mean it like that," Willy answered defensively. "You really scared the shit out of me, Lucas. I don't really know what to think."  
  
There was another pause, this one more uneasy, before he spoke. "I'm sorry I got you involved in my shit."  
  
"Don't be sorry. I *want* to be involved. I care about you." Willy wasn't sure he was ready for the word 'love' but it was sounding more appealing all the time. "You can tell me anything. I won't get mad."  
  
Yet another pause, as Lucas closed his eyes. "Sometimes visions come and come and I get to a place where it seems like the only road is a downward spiral, and I don't want to go down it. But I can't see that there are other roads anymore; I've been blinded. I get to that point and I would rather stop then have to move anymore. So I asked Wren this time, if he would let me stop."  
  
"Who's Wren?"  
  
"The god who sends me my visions. He gave me a response. He made me carve it into something, so it could never be erased and I could never forget it. But I thought I had a good idea. If I wrote it on my wrists I would die delivering my own message." He said without humor, "Pretty clever, huh?"  
  
Willy looked at his bandages. "What was the message?"  
  
"Dama Wren-rah." It took Lucas obvious pain to say it. "There is only Lord Wren."  
  
"That's cruel."  
  
"A lot of worse things could have happened." He seemed resigned to it. "And then I woke up and you were there. And I realized how compassionate Wren was."  
  
"Compassionate? For what?"  
  
"For keeping me alive." He said it in all seriousness. "So I could see you again." When Willy had no response to this, he continued, "So ... am I crazy? Am I a total sap? Or what?"  
  
"I think you're amazing, Lucas." He took his hand, but carefully. "You've been through so much, and you always come out on the other side."  
  
"Ah, we're both turning into fucking saps." The old Lucas was indeed reemerging. "So isn't your captain looking for you?"  
  
"He was here a day ago. I think he bought my excuse, though. I told him I was here to give blood."  
  
"Fuckin' moron."  
  
"Don't insult Captain O'Hare." He said it without force, mainly because he was so used to it, and he was glad his captain was so oblivious. "If he more on top of things, you'd be arrested for corrupting a minor."  
  
"Guilty." He tried to grip Willy's hand a bit tighter, but it only gave him a wave of pain from the damaged tenoms in his wrists. "Christ. It's gonna be a long haul, isn't it?"  
  
It felt good to joke about it. "After the damage you did? Yeah, it is."  
  
"How long are you staying?"  
  
It was not a subject Willy was looking forward to. "I'll have to call the Righteous. I don't think much longer. We're heading into some more contested areas, so I think they'll want me around. And I have to put in an appearance at home." He played with his hair. "I don't want to leave you."  
  
"We'll see each other soon," Lucas said confidently. "I needed a vacation, anyway."  
  
********************************************  
  
Much to his mother's distress, Willy picked at his food for a while. Two weeks had passed since he left Lucas, still weak but obviously out of the woods. It was a more reluctant parting than he had imagined it would be. For three days, he had ate, slept, and breathed Lucas MacArthur, and even without their usual level of physicality it had left an impression on him. Now being at home, or on the Righteous, was like a smoker going cold turkey. He longed for his boyfriend, but most surprisingly, not just for the physical Lucas, but the person, the living body that had almost been taken from him. Just when his world had been turned upside down.  
  
Lucas said he loved him. Willy felt he knew him well enough to know he didn't say important things lightly. It seemed likely enough; the priest had never said anything to make him suspect the contrary. They were magic words Willy was waiting for, to let himself believe that this was a *relationship,* not a series of make-out sessions.  
  
Did he love him back? It was a question he asked himself repeatedly over, burning it into his brain, because he didn't know the answer. Things were moving too fast. Two months ago, he would have thrown up at the idea of being involved with the priest, for any number of reasons. It was hard on him do admit he was doing such a 180.  
  
"Honey? Are you alright?"  
  
He didn't feel like explaining it to either of his parents. "Yeah."  
  
"Are you sure?" His mother used the usual super-sweet voice, but added a hint of seriousness to it, making it clear that she wanted the truth.  
  
"Yes, Mom," he answered in more annoyed tone than he originally intended. "Can I go?"  
  
"Of course... Just come back when your head's in the right place, dear," she said with a threatening smile. Man, did he want to get out of that situation. He cleaned his plate with record speed and was in the aniverse without changing out of his school clothes. Total was the day when he could have leave, which he would of course use to make his usual trip to go to Noctur II and work on his project with Ramsay. He made a mental note to throw something together to show to the captain sometime soon on the shuttle.  
  
Lucas, not surprisingly, was resting at home. But he was not alone - a monk was babysitting him, trying to look inconspicuous but failing horribly. It took Willy some convincing that he was a decent caretaker to make the monk leave.  
  
"Thank Frith," Lucas smirked. "I've been fine. I don't see why they're still sending them."  
  
"They're just concerned." Willy embraced him, kissing him on the forehead. "How are you?" He unconsciously glanced down at the priest's arms, which were covered by his sleeves.  
  
"Okay. You want to see them, don't you?"  
  
Willy lied. "No."  
  
"Haha." With that, Lucas tore off his outer shirt, stripping down to a T-shirt he had borrowed from Willy. His forearms were marked up in the same handwriting that covered his house, in language Willy couldn't decipher. The surgical stables were still in place. "I get them out on Thursday."  
  
The engineer couldn't help himself for some reason - maybe it was the lack of contact he'd had with his boyfriend for two and a half weeks - but against his better mind he ran his fingers rightly across the fresh scars, which were well on their way to healing but clearly would always still be there. The touch made him tingle in ways he wasn't immediately willing to admit, and it had nothing to do with the scars. "How do they feel?"  
  
"They itch like friggin' crazy. You done?"  
  
Willy pulled away, embarrassed. "Sorry."  
  
"'sokay." Lucas collapsed onto the couch. "So ... how've you been?"  
  
"Okay." Willy admitted, "I missed you. A lot."  
  
"Welcome to my world."  
  
"And I did a lot of thinking. About us."  
  
Lucas turned a bit more hesitant. "Oh*kay*. Anything you want to share?"  
  
"I ... didn't really come to any conclusions. Except that you're turning me into a nutcase."  
  
"In the good way?"  
  
Willy smiled. "In the good way." He sat down next to him. "And that I *really* missed you."  
  
"I bet."  
  
He responded in the usual manner. This was the longest break they'd gone without any activity since that day in the docking bay, so there was a lot more eagerness on both sides. Willy couldn't believe how much he'd missed physical human contact, and not the platonic kind. He actually missed not being able to think straight, missed losing his sense of time and everything else in the universe, or aniverse, other than Lucas.  
  
"Willy -"  
  
Between impatient breaths he gulped. "What?"  
  
But Lucas looked a little apprehensive for some reason. "How much did you miss me?"  
  
"A lot. I already said that. Why?"  
  
"Okay, Mr. Let's Take-It-Slow."  
  
The younger man slowly came to understand just how intense things were quickly getting. "Lucas, I lied. I came to some conclusions."  
  
"'kay..."  
  
"Well, really just one conclusion." He didn't want to have to say it out loud. He wanted Lucas to get it.  
  
"'kay... Are you sure?"  
  
Man, was it nice to have an observant boyfriend. "Yeah. I love you, Lucas. I'm not gonna marry you or anything but -"  
  
"I know." Lucas stroked his long hair. "Love you, too."  
  
*****************************************  
  
The scientist in Willy wanted to observe everything - the rise and fall of Lucas' chest, the gleam of sweat in his white hair and how it made the light shimmer when he moved his head. He wanted to look at his scars - and not just the ones on his arms, though those were certainly interesting enough. Lucas had little white scars and coleuses on his neck, probably from his slave labor camp days, when he probably wore a collar. He hand a scar hidden mostly by his hair that began just behind his left temple and trailed down in a straight line diagonally to his ear.  
  
"What're you looking at?" Lucas asked through the fog the existed between sleeping and wakefulness.  
  
"Your scars."  
  
"You're staring at my head."  
  
"You have a scar on your head."  
  
It took him a moment to register what he was saying. "Oh. Yeah. That's old." When he saw Willy's waiting glance, he signed. "I got that when I fell off my bike when I was ten."  
  
"You mean the fall that uh, made you a prophet."  
  
"Awoke my virthurility. Yes."  
  
They slipped into an easy silence. Lucas was apparently still not running at full steam from his injuries, and was quieter than expected. Willy idly glanced at the clock.  
  
"I have to go."  
  
Lucas' eyes shot open. "So eager to leave?"  
  
"I didn't say I *wanted to go." Willy sat up with a groan. "I just said I *have* to go. I have to be back on the Righteous within an hour."  
  
"You have time," he ran his finger along Willy's arm.  
  
"No, I don't, because I want to shower." It took most of his energy to get off the bed. "I'm sorry."  
  
"I understand." Lucas' voice was supremely relaxed, which was probably why he was taking this so well. "Go shower."  
  
He felt supremely guilty leaving Lucas, but he didn't have any choice. Escaping from the blanket of comfort that was the last few hours was hard, but the cold water against his skin woke him up enough to make it easier. In the fog he realized just how human-like a bathroom style Lucas had chosen, and not just out of necessity. Maybe he missed earth more than he was willing to admit.  
  
The priest had dressed and was waiting when he got out. He looked a little apprehensive at the idea of his boyfriend leaving. "I have something for you."  
  
Willy raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"  
  
"Really." He removed his left hand from its hiding position against his back. In it was a thin, rectangular box. Willy adjusted his glasses as he took it, looking over the smooth packaging. There were no marks on it, other than what looked like a small line of Lopine calligraphy.  
  
Upon opening it, the first thing that hit his eyes with the glint of metal. It was a dagger, and obviously not an ordinary one. The blade was about six inches long and straight, but it had two jutting curved appendages on ether side, like leaves on a poorly-drawn stem of a plant. Both extra ends eventually pointed downward with the main stem. The handle was in a stone or metal he didn't recognize, but resembled an ivory but in cleaner white.  
  
"It's a ritual dagger," Lucas explained. "It's considered very holy ... by some people."  
  
"I don't know what to say," was his honest answer. It obviously meant a lot to Lucas, but it was still overwhelming. "You didn't -"  
  
"Use it on myself. Or anyone else. No." Fortunately, he had anticipated his question.  
  
"Just checking. 'cuz that would be creepy."  
  
"It would."  
  
He had enough sense to realize how important this dagger was as a gesture from a priest, even if he wasn't intended to do anything but look at it. "Thank you. It's beautiful." He had such a creepy boyfriend.  
  
"You don't have to use it for anything. I just want you to have it." Lucas was being vague, but then again he usually was when he talked about anything religious.  
  
"Thanks. But I still have to go."  
  
Lucas smiled. "I know."  
  
The parting kiss was slower and more deliberate than was standard, both of them savoring each other before their parting.  
  
"When am I gonna see you again?" Lucas begged when they parted.  
  
"Soon," Willy promised. "I'll work it out."  
  
"'kay."  
  
Willy pecked him on the cheek and left the house more content than he could remember feeling for a long while. And carrying a very strange knife.  
  
*********************************************  
  
"Come on, it'll be fun."  
  
"No games -"  
  
Lucas played with his hair. "You're such a prude, Willy."  
  
"*No.*"  
  
"How drunk do I need to get you before you get experimental?"  
  
"I consider sleeping with *you* pretty experimental."  
  
But Lucas wasn't to be let down. He leaned over towards the dresser and hit the room's atmosphere controls, dimming the lights down to a minimum.  
  
"Romantic atmosphere? Is that your only idea?"  
  
"No." With that, he snatched Willy's thick glasses off of his face.  
  
It was enough to make Willy sit up. "What the hell are you doing?"  
  
"I said it was tame."  
  
"I can't see a fucking thing." He grasped at the air. "Give me my glasses."  
  
But Lucas had already stashed them far out of his reach. "And ruin the fun? No way."  
  
"Being blind is not 'fun' Lucas."  
  
"Don't be so dramatic. You're not totally blind." He waved his hand in front of Willy's face.  
  
"I can see shapes, but in this light I can't make out shit." He gripped Lucas' hand. "Stop it."  
  
"You're so serious? Haven't I told you that you need to relax and trust me?"  
  
"I may relax but I'm *not* trusting you -"  
  
The priest's response was to cut him off with a kiss. When it was broken off, Lucas was the first to respond. "Now just *relax*, Willy." With that, he disappeared from the engineer's immediate eyesight. And he was still wearing his black robe, so most of him blended into the scenery of his black-sheeted bed.  
  
"Lucas, I can't see you."  
  
"That's the point, moron."  
  
"I told you to stop it-," he was cut off by suddenly being distracted when he was able to locate where Lucas was by touch. "I take that back. Don't stop."  
  
His boyfriend giggled. "I *told* you to trust me."  
  
Willy couldn't respond his mind was absolutely melted. It was frustrating that Lucas was always a step ahead of him in the physical aspect of their relationship, but it didn't bother him enough to ask him to stop it. In fact, not a lot could have convinced him to end what was going on.  
  
*****************************************  
  
Had he not been so relaxed, Willy probably would have sensed earlier that something was amazingly wrong with the situation. But in his state, he sauntered in and casually saluted his waiting captain. And Jenny. Who were alone with him. And looking very formal. Wait a minute -  
  
"Engineer DuWitt." It was the formal voice. Either something was really wrong, of he was in *big* trouble. But from the look on the faces of his superior officers, it was the latter.  
  
"Uhm, sirs?" His mouth went dry. Not that dry, his mind taking extra long to snap-to. Lucas definitely went a little overboard, but he wasn't complaining.  
  
"Sit down."  
  
He sat down in the briefing room, opposite where Bucky and Jenny were standing rigidly. Both had looks that could kill.  
  
"Uhm, am I late?" He checked his watch. "Because my watch says I'm on time -"  
  
"No. You're not."  
  
No further explanation. Man, was he going to get it.  
  
Bucky began to pace, not looking at him anymore, which was a relief. Jenny maintained her eye-lock as the captain spoke. "As you know, we just completed a sweep of sector two and made a stop to refuel on this station in orbit of Rigel I."  
  
This was not new information. He had left the ship immediately after they arrived at the station. "Yeah."  
  
"While we were on Noctur, Jenny and I ran into someone in the bar. Would you like to guess who it was?"  
  
He had a sinking feeling, but if he was wrong, he didn't want to get himself into *more* trouble. "Uhm... Tommy?"  
  
"Ramsay MacLeod."  
  
Fucking *shit.* He *so* should have told Ramsay about his little cover story. But he kept putting it off, in fear of being outed and rejected by his raccoon friend.  
  
"He told us some interesting things," his captain continued. "Like that there's no AI project. And that he had no idea you'd been visiting Noctur II repeatedly for the last two months. Admirably, he was very concerned about you."  
  
He stopped pacing, looking out the window, which faced one of Rigel I's moons. "So Jenny and I had a little brainstorming session. What would you be doing on Noctur II that you would be unwilling to tell us about? It was fairly easy after we narrowed down who you knew on Noctur II, especially after that little hospital visit three weeks ago."  
  
Willy swallowed. He had no decent response. Jenny did not break her gaze.  
  
Fortunately or unfortunately, Bucky wasn't done. "MacArthur was an easy choice. After all, we've only repeatedly told you to stay away from him, so it would made it all the more likely that you would have to cover up still being in contact with that psycho. What we couldn't figure out, though, was *why.* Was he blackmailing you? Or were you giving him military secrets because of some sort of human loyalty? Either way, we had to start thinking about alerting the UAC. Either way, it's a major security breach." He paused. "At Jenny's suggestion, we decided to approach you first. If you're the victim, we want to know first, not some prosecutor. So that brings us to right now." He turned to Willy expectantly.  
  
It was all very surreal. Neither of them had obviously not guessed the real reason for his visits. Jesus Christ, they were dumb. He had to laugh - out loud.  
  
"Is something funny, Engineer DuWitt?"  
  
He figured it was best to be out with it. He didn't want to be tried for treason, after all. "Yeah. Security breach? Christ. I wouldn't tell Lucas anything. He's a terrorist."  
  
"Then I don't see what -"  
  
"Oh, come *on.*" Willy actually got up from his chair for this. "Don't you get it? I'm not doing anything UAC-related with Lucas. I'm seeing him."  
  
Bucky unconsciously tapped behind his ear, where his translator was located. "*What*?"  
  
"I'm seeing him! You know, romantically." The whole thing was too crazy to really deal with. "I'm going out with him, Captain!"  
  
This seemed to permute Bucky's thick skull, because he was too flustered to immediately respond by doing anything other than repeating himself. "*What*?"  
  
"I don't need to explain myself again." He collapsed back into his uncomfortable conference room chair, which was much too small for him anyway. "I'm not doing anything wrong. S.P.A.C.E. is not a clergy. I can *date* who I want, when I want, as long as it doesn't interfere with my work. Which it hasn't." He didn't feel the need to bring up that he was hideously underage for his currently level of involvement with Lucas.  
  
Bucky was really slow to respond. "B-But ... he's a male, Willy!"  
  
"I realized that, Captain."  
  
"You're male!"  
  
"Also duly noted."  
  
The hare's voice was at the point of shouting. "That's just *wrong*!"  
  
Jenny, who hadn't said anything to this point, playing the part of the supportive second officer obediently, now spoke up to Bucky in a very commanding tone, "What the frell is wrong with that?" When he was too thrown-off to have any response, she continued, "Come on, Buck. I've slept with lots of female Aldeberans."  
  
Willy's ears were suddenly red at the absurdity of this turn. "Oh my god, this is like listening to my parents talk about this! Can we stop this before we go any further?"  
  
"You be *quiet* Engineer DuWitt," she said in a tone to let him know who was still the superior officer before turning back to Bucky. "I don't understand what your problem is. Aside from the obvious fact that Willy lied to us."  
  
"Uhm," he didn't have any real response. "Other females? Really?"  
  
"Yes. I don't know what it's like on Warren, but it's perfectly normal on Aldeberan. Even recommended." She continued, "I question his choice in personalities, but as long as Willy's being safe, and he's happy, there isn't a problem with the mechanics of who he's involved with. Now, can we get back to the issue at hand, which is his punishment for lying to superior officers?"  
  
Bucky was too flabbergasted to have any immediate response. But eventually, he seemed to sense the tide was working against him, and was unwilling to go up against Jenny on the issue. "...Yes." Turning back to his more formal voice as much as possible, he straightened his uniform nervously. "Engineer DuWitt, you realize you did commit some breach of protocol by continuously lying to us about your whereabouts?"  
  
"Yes." It was time to roll with whatever was handed to him. "I didn't feel comfortable telling you about Lucas because I didn't think you would accept it. But you're right, I shouldn't have lied to you. But I wasn't thinking. My mind was on ... other things." Humbly he said, "I accept whatever punishment you give me."  
  
Bucky stammered into a decision. "Two-day suspension, without pay. When you return, you're to clean the Righteous until it shines, even if it cuts into your shore leave. Is that understood?"  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"Then you're dismissed." They saluted. "And you still owe an apology to Ramsay."  
  
*********************************************  
  
The raccoon took it well, in Willy's opinion.  
  
"Lucas-rah? The priest? I know he doesn't *have* to be celibate but ...," he took another sip of his drink. "It's just a little weird to think about. He's just so holy."  
  
"He's not so holy, I assure you," Willy said slyly. "And you don't have to think about it if the mental images are bothering you. But you can at least see why I was sort of hesitant about telling you?"  
  
"I guess I could see that, yeah. Sorry I blew your cover."  
  
Willy shook his head. "It's my fault. For not telling you. I wanted to, but I put it off. I didn't think it was going to be a sustained relationship. He's kinda ...crazy sometimes."  
  
"I don't really know much about Lucas-rah the person," Ramsay admitted. "I've never spoken to him casually or anything. He's this huge religious figure. It's impossible to get an appointment with him, even if I wanted to. You're a lucky bastard - you know that?"  
  
"I haven't thought about it like that," he said casually.  
  
"Has he ever given you a prophecy - for yourself?" After a pause, he added, "You don't have to answer that."  
  
"He hasn't. Sometimes I get the feeling he knows things but won't tell me. But I don't really mind."  
  
"Can I ask you a favor?"  
  
Lucas nodded. "Yeah, I do owe you one for all this mess."  
  
"If he ever mentions me, can you buzz me and tell me my future?"  
  
It was enough to make him smile. "Yeah."  
  
*********************************************  
  
"It worked out well, I think," Willy said from his relaxed position sprawled out on Lucas' couch. The priest was sitting at the other end, massaging his foot.  
  
"Well? I haven't seen you in two weeks. I'm pissed as hell at O'Hare."  
  
"Will you chill? I'm the one with his hands soar from scrubbing the outer hull like a mother and look how relaxed I am." He glanced at his hands, which were covered in blisters. "But if you're asking for a rubdown you're not going to get it, buddy."  
  
"I just missed you."  
  
The engineer softened his voice. "Yeah. I know. I missed you, too. But it had to happen, sooner or later. Now at least the air is clear."  
  
"So they know where you are now?"  
  
"Yeah. They're cool with it. Not *that* cool, but they've sort of realized there's nothing they can do about it. Bit of a don't ask, don't tell situation."  
  
"Fine by me." He had that devious Lucas smile again. "So can I stop by the Righteous now and then for a quickie?"  
  
"You'd better be joking."  
  
Lucas pouted. "You still don't trust me, do you?"  
  
"You're a fucking maniac, Lucas."  
  
"But you wouldn't have it any other way, would you?"  
  
"Of course," he grinned. "How shut up and kiss me."  
  
Finis. 


End file.
